ARTIST NEWS

And the concerto, which incorporates a Chinese folk song, told a story as much as Debussy did with his faun: Even after booming crashes from the orchestra and vaguely threatening snare drumming (kept at just the right level), that plucky little pipa was still humming along.

There it was: Playing with a harp, laughing with a violin, dancing with a cello, all of it proving that music truly is a universal language.

As a conductor, Jacobsen never upstaged the music. He used graceful, sweeping motions or small, precise strokes for trickier passages. But there was nothing flashy about his direction; he appeared perfectly content to let featured musicians keep the momentum going when appropriate.